Summarize the Textual History of the 1001 Nights

The history behind successfully translating the Arabian nights is long and complicated, however throughout all the madness certain aspects of this search remain the same. Translators are constantly searching for the oldest a manuscript of the Nights. The Nights have indefinitely received multiple additions since the older versions. Irwin tells us that a purpose of the Nights was to be read aloud by storytellers. And of course the storyteller needed no exact copy of the Nights "he needed only an\ outline of a story on which he could embroider on." Therefore the question of criticism is raised 'should the Nights be criticized as a single work of an ingenious author (for there is evidence stating the Nights  is in fact the work of one man), or should they be treated as a body of tales which differing cultures have all made diverse contributions to? Thus the search for the single oldest version of the manuscript rages on. The diversity of writing style awithin the text makes this a difficult factor in the
Another significant difficulty in translating the Nights  is its the problem of cross-contamination. Many manuscripts which are significant landmarks in our search of the first Nights of the nights have been translated from somewhere else and have flaws of grammar and meaning in them. This means we are often using flawed manuscripts for our own translations. We face many difficulties in the translating of this document however the search rages on and every step we take we are closer to uncovering another seceret in the Arabian Nights. 

All the Right Ingredients ...

What description does Susan Wise Bauer give of the "traditional" Arab ways? What kinds of people populated this land?

"To be Arab meant nothing more than living on the Arabian peninsula," (Wise Bauer pg. 193). In 510 Arabia consists of many differing peoples. The peninsula consisted of mainly desert and uninhabitable oil reservoirs, which perhaps contributed to disunity of the land. Arabia seemed to consist of mainly two people groups who lived in constant competition and disregard of each others lifestyles. These groups were the Bedouins (nomadic tribes) or urban peoples. Many differing religions wrestled for Arabian consensus,such as Nestorius Christianity, or traditional deities. The echo of a common ancestry and ancient history remained the sole connecting factors of the many different Arabian peoples. For example, tribes would venture to an ancient shrine called the Ka'aba. An unwritten code of law respected by all Arabian tribes prohibited war anywhere in a twenty mile radius of this ancient. Some common strand of DNA could be found deep in minds of these seemingly unconnected Arabian tribes.
This scene to me seems as a recipe with all the right ingredients set out, but with no one cook present to put them together. Here stands these large stretch of land, yet there remains no united peoples to defend it. The Arabian tribes seem to be crying out for a strong leader to draw upon their common piece of ancient history and present the peninsula with a common ideology which is strictly Arabian in nature. For you have in every tribe deep sense of 'arab-ness', but one would not have to face the problems of taking over a central form of military.

This disunited people cries out for a uniter...